Cosmologic philosophy: Egnor on Big Bang, etc. (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, September 08, 2021, 12:49 (1172 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: […] you wrote: “there is no before before the BB. Time didn’t exist. This was proven by Guth, Borde and Valenkin by mathematics years ago, presented by my books and here.”

DAVID: I accept the definition of time as a sequence of events only when they exist in a BB that contains time, which by definition ours does and therefore possible/imaginary prior BB's did.

dhw: You have accepted my definition of time, and you agree that there could have been BBs before ours! Therefore you believe it is possible that time existed before our BB. So please stop disagreeing with yourself.

DAVID: Don't you read what I write? I agree to the definition of time as a sequence of events, BUT only if that sequence occurs within the spacetime of an exiting BB universe.

dhw: Don’t you read what you write? If possible/imaginary prior BBs “contained” time, then you reject your own statement that Guth & Co have proven that time did not exist before our BB.

DAVID: Read properly: if imaginary BB's existed they contained time only within them!!! Not inbetween !!!

The question whether time exists as a sequence of before-during-after BBs (i.e. BETWEEN BBs) is irrelevant to your belief that time may have existed within earlier BBs. If you believe that there may have been earlier BBs which contained time, you do not believe that Guth & Co have proven that time did not exist before our BB.

DAVID: You are so confused. Time exists only within BB's.

And if there may have been earlier BBs, then time existed before our BB.

DAVID: Guth's point and mine is our time started with our BB.

Of course “our” time started with our BB, but Guth & Co claim that there was nothing before our BB, and so there was no time before our BB. You think they proved this, but you also think there may have been time before our BB, in which case they have not proved there was no time before our BB. You are trying to hide your own confusion by inserting the word “our”. Please reread the bold at the start of this post, agree with me that you do not accept it, and let us move on.